VEHICLE CONDITION AND HEAVY TRUCK ACCIDENT INVOLVEMENT
Roughly 5,000 medium and heavy trucks are involved in fatal traffic accidents each year; on average, roughly 5,400 people are killed in those accidents. It is often presumed that the mechanical condition of trucks contributes to this toll, either through a failure that directly led to a collision or because a truck could not maneuver to avoid the collision due to mechanical defects. Roadside inspections to identify and eliminate mechanical defects in trucks are part of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's strategy to reduce the number of traffic accidents involving trucks and consequent fatalities. Every year, the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP) allocates funds to the states to support roadside inspection programs to identify trucks with mechanical defects and remove them from the road. Yet the critical linkage of mechanical defects and accident involvement has not been thoroughly studied. A major obstacle to studying the relationship between vehicle condition and accident involvement has been a lack of reliable data on trucks involved in traffic accidents. This paper presents a study to remedy that lack of reliable data.
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Corporate Authors:
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Center for Transportation Research
Conference Center Building
Knoxville, TN United States 37996-4133 1121 Spring Lake Drive
Itasca, IL United States 60143 -
Authors:
- Blower, D
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Conference:
- International Truck and Bus Safety Research and Policy
- Location: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- Date: 2002-4-3 to 2002-4-5
- Publication Date: 2002-4
Language
- English
Media Info
- Features: References; Tables;
- Pagination: p. 311-322
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Crash data; Fatalities; Heavy duty trucks; Inspection; Reliability; Roadside; Traffic crashes; Truck crashes; Trucking safety; Vehicle safety
- Uncontrolled Terms: Mechanical condition; Mechanical defects
- Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00922948
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Apr 30 2002 12:00AM